Workers Preparing For New Complex County Staff Starts Shuffling Offices Early Before Construction Begins

February 5, 1986|By Rick Tonyan of The Sentinel Staff

DELAND — Construction will not begin on a new Volusia County administrative office complex for at least another four months, but hundreds of county employees already are shuffling their offices to get ready for the project.

Employees, records and equipment of two county departments have found new headquarters until the office complex is built. The $12 million project is to start in June or early July and be finished in September 1987.

The new complex, between Indiana and Rich avenues, is designed to hold the offices that now are spread around the downtown DeLand area. County administrators say they must scatter some offices further because they are in buildings that will be demolished to make way for the complex.

Employees of the central reproduction department, which publishes documents for the county, were the first to move. In December, the department moved from an 80-year-old former jail, which is to be either moved or demolished, on Indiana Avenue. The department now works out of a former junior high school building on Clara Avenue.

The Development and Code Administration Department last week moved from the county public works building, at 136 N. Florida Ave., to a former law office at 110 W. Indiana Ave.

Next, the purchasing and traffic engineering divisions will move into the former development and code offices. Purchasing agents now work on Indiana Avenue out of a 1917-vintage building, which is to be either moved or torn down.

The traffic engineering division also is housed in the public works building. It will move into the new offices to make room for any other department that may need to move into the building until the complex is complete, said Billy Gilley, the public works aide coordinating the project.

Gilley said the public works building itself later may be demolished and used as a parking lot for the complex, but its exact fate has not been decided.

Shortly before construction begins, the county legal department, now at 138 W. Indiana Ave., and the social services office, 142 W. Indiana Ave., will both move so their current headquarters may be demolished.

The office complex is being funded by money left over from a $21 million bond issue used to build a new county jail. It is considered a cornerstone of an effort to redevelop the downtown DeLand area.